


And no one dared disturb the sounds of silence

by nerdbeyondlimits



Series: Scenes - Season 7 [1]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: And kinda sad, Angst, Emotional Hurt, Isolation, It's really abstract, Keith (Voltron)-centric, Keith was looking particularly distressed during that space isolatio y'all, Mental Breakdown, Mental Instability, Season/Series 07 Spoilers, and made this, doubts, feel free too count, he's not doing to good, i think i used the word mad over forty times, so i decided to overthink it, too much thoughts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-11
Updated: 2018-08-11
Packaged: 2019-06-25 21:35:12
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,880
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15649371
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nerdbeyondlimits/pseuds/nerdbeyondlimits
Summary: (Season 7 spoilers!)During that episode where the paladins got stuck in space without their lions, I thought Keith looked particularly distressed. So this is basically a look inside his head during those hours. (I warn you; it's angsty. And weird. And it will probably make you question my own sanity.)





	And no one dared disturb the sounds of silence

**Author's Note:**

> So I finished the new season in one go, and despite what a lot of people is saying, I thought it was really good. And the character development, god! Of course, Adam's death did disappoint me, but I understand their decision to kill him off (and it does not make his and Shiro's past relationship queerbaiting! Respect the writers, you guys.)  
> Anyways, i had some feels, so i wrote this. I'll probably upload a bunch more of these snippets in the coming weeks from different views of points, exploring certain scenes that I really liked. (And like, Keith is my fave character, so don't be surprised if most are about him)
> 
> (Title from Sound of Silence by Simon and Garfunkel)
> 
> Rant over, go ahead and read!

 

 

Keith liked to think he was used to silence. He spent a year in the desert, barely talking to anyone but occasional store clerks, if that. He actually thought he enjoyed the quiet. No voices invading his space or interrupting his thinking.

Turns out, it really never was quiet in the desert. There were crickets, there was the wind and the coyotes.

In space, there was nothing. Absolutely nothing.

And it was about to drive him over the edge. It couldn't have passed more time than a couple of hours since they lost the lions, but it felt like aeons. With no sun to tell the time or conversations to measure minutes, a minute felt like an hour.

It was so, so quiet.

The worst thing wasn't even the silence, though. It was the times he thought it was over, only to be slung back into the harsh reality. The hallucinations.

There was the one with the alien-birds, that all of them were convinced they were seeing. Until Keith boosted his jet-pack and they disappeared in a blink.

“Were they even real?” Allura had asked.

“I guess they could have been a hallucination. But that usually only happens when you're going mad”, Pidge had answered. And there it was, the word that haunted Keith in his dreams. Mad. Being in the desert, he sometimes felt... disconnected. Like there was a veil between him and the rest of the world. And he walked on its earth and talked to its people and breathed its air, but... He could never really be there. Be one of them.

He spent many days wondering if he was mad, back then.

And then Shiro came along, and they went into space, and his mind was occupied for a long while.

But the doubts always found a way back in. He knew he was different. He could feel it in his bones. But was different something objective, or just a synonym for that word? That dreaded, dreaded word?

Being lost in the void, those doubts grew stronger than they had in a very long time.

The sound offs became his anchor. Routines kept people sane, he told himself.

_Beep beep_

“Everyone... Sound off.” But even then, he wondered. _If I need something to keep me sane, doesn't that mean I'm already on the brink off madness? If I scrap the routines, would I no longer stand on that brink? Or would that mean I had succumbed to the madness?_

Before he had figured that out, he stuck with the routines.

“Allura here.”

“Lance here.”

“Pidge here.”

No Hunk.

_But if the routines were broken by someone else, what did that mean? If I'm the only one with routines, am I the only one sane? Or the only one mad?_

“Hunk, sound off immediately!” Allura answered instead.

“Keith, you don't have to-” _But he did have to, because if he didn't... If he didn't-_

“It's okay, Allura. It's okay. I was just kinda, lost in this fantasy that we'd get to earth and, you know, the Garrison would throw us a parade and all that stuff, and then, you know, maybe I'd meet some hotshot pilot who wanted to check out the yellow lion and then maybe the yellow lion would take a shine to her, obviously, and I'd be like, 'Whoa, whoa. I can't stand in between you two. The bond is strong here.'

“Hunk, what are you talking about?” Lance asked, sounding tired.

“Fantasising about quitting Voltron,” Keith answered in his place.

“No, no, no. Not quitting. Just, you know, being the bigger man. Just stepping aside to pass on the baton to a younger generation.”

“Am I quite wrong, or is Hunk still very young by Earth standards?” Allura asked.

“No, I think time is different for me. Like I'm on dog years or something.” Hunk's voice faded out from Keith's consciousness. Something was wrong. Very wrong.

He'd barely finished that thought when the void around them suddenly turned a violent red. There was ropes of lightning wounding around them, grabbing their feet and pulling them away from each other.

“ _What's happening?”_

“ _What is this?”_

“ _I'm being pulled away!”_

_Voices screaming, too loud, too loud, too loud._

“ _Something is attacking us! Keith, what do we do?”_

“ _I can't hold on!” Voices fading, too far away, too far away._

_He ripped out his bayard, trying desperately to activate it, but nothing happened. Still, he kept swinging the small weapon as it was. Why wouldn't it transform? He was in danger, they were in danger, the universe was in danger danger danger._

And then it all disappeared, as quick as it had begun. Pidge boosted herself up to him, grabbing the arm he'd let go off.

“My bayard won't work. We don't know where the lions are. We're being attacked by thing we can't even see,” he ranted, unable to keep it all from spilling over his lips.

“Keith...” It was Lance. “What are you talking about? There's nothing here. It's just us.”

_Nothing here. There's nothing here, nothing nothing nothing._ Keith narrowed his eyes.

 

_Madness._

 

_And he was powerless to fight it._

 

* * *

 

_Beep beep_

 

“Keith, shouldn't we sound off?” Lance asked.

“What's the point?” _What's the point in routines if I'm already mad?_ Lance did it anyway.

“Lance here.”

“Pidge here.”

“Allura here.”

“I am Hunk.”

 

* * *

 

“I wonder how my dad and Matt are doing,” Pidge said suddenly.

“Better than us, hopefully.” _Better than me. Better than mad._

“My father had something he always said in dire situations.”

“Give up?” Keith suggested.

“Sorry?”

“It just doesn't seem like he was a real fighter when the chips were down.”

“Keith, come on,” Hunk objected.

“You have a lot of nerve questioning someone's leadership, seeing how you left us.” Allura shot back.

“Allura, please,” Hunk said. But Keith didn't want her to stop. _Fighting felt good. Fighting felt grounding. Fighting felt... sane._

“As I recall, you were the one who got us all cozied up to Lotor.”

“Keith, you ran away. Maybe you should have just stayed away,” Lance said.

“Lance, Keith, everyone, stop! Look guys, I understand what's happening here. You're all brave heroes who don't know how to react to being scared, and it's causing you to attack one another. That, or you're all going space mad. Hopefully you're just scared. I'm scared all the time. I can talk you through it.” _Scared? Was it possible that he was simply... Afraid? But no. He knew madness. Madness knew him. It wasn't fear. It never had been. It never would be._

“Sorry Hunk. I guess I just don't know how to be a coward.”

“Right? That's what I'm saying.”

“Why don't you just leave him alone,Keith? You should drift off by yourself, Mr. Lone Wolf.”

“Fine,” he bit back. _Fighting felt good, but not when Hunk was saying those things. Those things about fear._

“No, don't!” He grabbed Keith's ankle.

“We have to stay together!” _But were they really together? Or was he on the other side on the veil, like he'd always been?_

“Why, Hunk? Are we really even friends? Is there anything holding us together beside some messed up series of coincidences? I mean, what are we? Some chosen saviours? Do you really believe that? What are we even doing out here?” _Going mad mad mad mad._

“We're doing what we have to.” _But he couldn't do it, he couldn't save the universe when he couldn't even save himself._

“Let me go!”

“No!” Pidge interrupted them.

“Uh, guys?” Keith looked here way. There was a bright light coming from there.

“Is it more of those creatures?” Lance asked.

“No. It appears to be a single light source. It looks like a planet.

“No way,” Lance muttered. Keith stared at it. _Mad mad mad mad._

“It's... Earth,” he said. _Can't be can't be can't be delusional delusional mad mad mad._

“That wave must've knocked us all the way across the universe!” _Could it could it could it?_

“We're home!” Lance activated his jet-pack and boosted himself toward the planet. The rest of them followed.

“We're gonna make it, guys!” _Could it really be? If the others saw it, too...? On Earth, he wouldn't have to think about the mad mad mad. On Earth, it would be okay. No madness. No silence. No doubts._

“Wait, wait, wait, wait guys. Where's the sun? Where's the other planets? Or the moon? Stop, this is too good to be true. Stop. Everybody, stop!” Hunk flew down in front of them, slowing their approach.

“Hunk, what are you doing?”

“Stop it, Hunk!”

“No, no, something's wrong!”

“Hunk, you're hallucinating. You're going space mad! Just let us take you home!” Pidge boosted her jet-pack and grabbed Hunk's arm, dragging him along. The rest of them joined her.

“No! Listen to yourselves! You're letting all this get the better of you. There's no way that can be Earth.”

“Just trust us Hunk. You'll thank us when we get there.”

“Let me go!” He broke free, tumbling away from them. _Doesn't matter,_ Keith thought absently. _Earth, Earth, Earth matters._ But Hunk wasn't done. He summoned his bayard, shot through their group and scattering them. The beam hit Earth with a boom. A second later, it wasn't Earth anymore, but a huge alien thing, looking like some sort of avocado sting ray. _No mad no mad no mad._

“What the quiznack is that?”

“Hunk was right!” _Hunk was right. About fear? No, about Earth. Maybe fear, too? Not mad? Not mad? Not mad?_

“He saved us.”

“Here it comes!” Hunk shouted. The creature opened his mouth, and they all scattered, trying to escape it's razor-blade teeth.

“Guys, that thing is hunting us. It's gonna get us all unless we do something.”

“Like what? We can't even use our bayards.”

“How did you manifest yours, Hunk?”

“I don't know. I just knew that I needed to.”

“What are we gonna do? We don't stand a chance!”

“Get out of here! I'll buy you some time! Go1” Hunk wielded his bayard, flying towards the creature.

“Hunk!”

“No!”

But Hunk didn't listen. He launched himself forward, peppering the beast with laser beams. _Hunk was right, Hunk knows, Hunk understand, Hunk can't leave._ The other paladins apparently thought the same. Together, they created a chain link and hauled Hunk back in.

“What are you doing?” he shouted.

“Fire jet-packs!” Pidge commanded. Shooting themselves away from the stingray, it actually seemed to back off. Maybe they had confused it enough for it to leave. Hunk bumped into Keith, and he steadied the other one. _Hunk is right. Afraid. Very very afraid. But not mad._

“What are you guys doing? I told you to escape!”

“Why would we ever do that without you?”

“Yeah. You can't expect us to just leave you.”

“We're a team, Hunk. We have stick together, like you said.” Keith took a deep breath. _Not mad._

“I'm sorry I said those hurtful things earlier. I was wrong. This series of messed up coincidences did happen for a reason. It brought us together as paladins. But more importantly, it brought us together as friends.”

_Good friends, who knew things. Good friends, without a veil._

_Wrong, and afraid._

_But never mad. And never alone in the silence._

 

**Author's Note:**

> So, as I said, very abstract and weird, I know. But hopefully some of you'll like it. If you did, leave a comment or a kudos and I will feel like the fandom did when they announced Shiro was gay.
> 
> Thanks for reading!
> 
> (I also dearly apologise for referring to that space monster as an avocado stingray. I have zero impulse control)


End file.
